Down escalator

Have you ever tried going up the down escalator? You can only make slow progress even with doubled or tripled effort because you have to overcome its strong downward push. You pause a second and you actually go back down.

In a speech at the Mandaue Business Club, economist Jesus Estanislao echoed the political right’s position that the Philippines is not ready for a shift to federalism. We are in the process of uniting as one strong economy and this should not be disrupted by any unfamiliar political event.

It is safe to assume that what Mr. Estanislao refers to as a “strong economy” is a steady and high unqualified growth of the Gross National Product (GNP). That’s what we have now and clearly any political disruption could make it sputter.

But does the nation need the economist’s unqualified “strong economy”? What the country’s poor millions need is arguably an economy that has the quality of inclusiveness. Whether the economy’s growth is high or low is not as important as that its benefits are equitably shared or enjoyed by all Filipinos and the poor millions do not get just a trickle, if any, as they do now.

This type of economy that benefits all equitably, i.e. inclusive, has been proven to be impossible of attainment under the present system and form of government. The non-representative and, therefore, sham democracy we have is actually run by an oligarchy that controls it and keeps it exclusive. The economy is going at a fast rate now, yes, but the economic progress of the 30 million poor Filipinos is nowhere near any faster than a snail’s pace.

The old constitution has a provision for the growth of the regions that they should be developed equitably and no region left behind. Yet the current reality is that only the national capital region is really developed economically and even there the poverty in its soft, dirty, and smelly underbelly is scandalously appalling.

For the poor millions (and please don’t ask me for statistics, the poor are all around us in varying degrees of hunger, ignorance, unemployment and ill-health) the high growth in GNP means nothing. The benefits of high production, high sales and high returns on investment are enjoyed only by capitalists and their top managers, not by ordinary workers, not by the unemployed and the underemployed.

Mr. Estanislao’s strong economy must be made inclusive and this has not been possible under the present system and form of government. Unless people, who are closest to the problem, have a voice in government (this could come with federalism) the economy will be controlled by the oligarchy and the people’s struggle to get up to the economy’s second floor remains as a heavy walk up the down escalator.